Areas of Interest

are you in for a penny or in for a pound? Or will you be checking your bank balances?

I ask because Russ posted last month about waiting until Historicon for an answer vis-a-vis the Boxer Rebellion which I think might be a very big hint.

If it happens – and I'm starting to believe it will – I expect this to be a hit. Buildings, figures, and who knows what else – and almost all of it useful for other events than the Boxer Rebellion itself. If you go back and look at Russ' of Old Glory's older posts on the subject, he seemed to indicate buildings in addition to figures.

As I've repeated a few times here and there, I'm also hoping for a sub-range for the Sand Pebbles! Steve McQueen and Candace Bergen! But will she do double duty against that windy old lion? Hoping for lots of unarmed civilians, European and Chinese.

I would be in for more than a penny, but less than a pound. Depends on if buildings are indeed part of the deal. We have figures in 15mm for the Boxer Rebellion already, but no one makes Chinese buildings! And if I wanted to do my Sand Pebbles project "plopah" I need suitable buildings!

EMW – I have some of their Chaco War figures, I thought they could make an interesting force (actually two), but I am completely unaware that they have anything else even remotely tied to the period. Care to enlighten as their website is down at the moment?

There's a lot of pros and cons for this period and I could see myself using the Blue Moon figures with the Battles For Empire rules. There are a wide variety of units, it's a colorful period, and the colonial era is fun for gamers.

However, after reading a half dozen books on the subject, most notably Diana Preston's The Boxer Rebellion, the Chinese had no chance in this war. Poor command & control, no fire discipline, lack of training, no logistics to speak of, etc., and there wasn't really much of a war. In every major action they were hopeless outgunned, did not fare well in close combat, and showed not even a hint of tactical skill. You would have to so cripple the Allied forces in whatever set of rules that you use that it would make running a game difficult. TSATF might be the way to go for the period, but the larger battles may have to be done in a kind of fantasy setting.

I will be having a close look at what comes out. Funnily enough I've only ever bought one pack of Arab Machine gunners from blue moon. This upcoming range will definitely involve me spending some money!It should inspire me to raise another division of imperial infantry, and after that I'm sure I'll be tempted with lots of bits.Hopefully the chap who does the flags for TVAG will be inspired to finish off his range of flags for the period.

And if someone fancies producing some transfers for shields for the tigermen etc that would be great…and maybe some fancy transfers for the complicated embroidery on the mandarin's coats?

Buildings would be great of course although I personally will probably make some as the cost of resin is a bit rich for my paypacket at the moment. You can already gets some fu-dogs/lions at the moment but a proper archway/gateway would be great.

I'm quite interested in the Boxer Rebellion in 18mm, but I won't buy anything until it is complete enough to be satisfactory. I learned with BM's Great War range not to accept promises that lines will get filled out over time.

Also keep in mind Russ alludes to things that somehow never ends up being made. Point of case when the Blue Mooon Alamo was released a few years ago he implied there would be buildings for Golliad which somehow never were made.

Disco Joe, you do know that pretty much the whole of Old Glory 25s/Blue Moon production schedule got set back a couple of years while those companies sucked in money from some other source – money that probably helped pay for a lot of the releases we've been getting or soon will be? Right?

It's just possible that the stuff will arrive, just not on your schedule. Or maybe not. If Alamo sold like lead, expect less. If it sells well, expect more. Same thing will happen with the Boxer release – if it sells well, more stuff, if it sells poor, less stuff. Pretty basic business common sense.

Of course, the Boxer stuff has to make its appearance to be 'real'. But I'd say its going to be a good seller based on how many replies the related threads have generated. Some supposedly 'hot' releases get maybe a dozen responses. I believe the original Russ posting about the Boxers got about 40 or more. Seems a pretty good sign to me. Of course, it might just be wishful thinking on my part – but someone's got to be out there wishing. I'm taking a lead here and wishing away. With some support from Smokey, it seems.

Yep. I feel that as a 15mm historical wargamer I am now a minority in the hobby. So even a good selling new range may not be a great seller financially. Hope it does well. Hope they do indeed match in with old glory especially as old glory are looking into splitting their multinational packs into more sensible ones. Variety is a good thing and their is definitely room for more of this period.

The size of the Old Glory Packs is the thing I've had holding me back on the Boxer rebellion.I don't need 50 French Sailors. The Boxers yes but the Allies, (mainly the Legation for me) I need much less.I would be very interested in what Blue Moon have.Could also use them for Pulp wargaming..I'm trying to download a copy of the Yanks Up the Yangtze rules. Do they play solo well?Maybe use them for some pulp type games too…?

Old glory are looking at making smaller pack sizes (25 including a command I think). This is particularly useful for the Europeans, as a pack of French sailors, marines and Italian sailors contains the wrong number of each force as I need one battalion (18 figs for me) and two for the marines and zero Italians and I'd end up buying three packs and being left with to many of most of them!Hopefully the lists will get updated along with the blue moon release.Maybe some new scenarios books would be good too.

badwargamer – I don't know that we who do 15 mm are a minority. It is just that 28 mm gets more big press. Although, with skirmish gaming being so popular, there may be more people into 28 mm because skirmish requires so few figures – but that won't sustain the growth of the hobby in my opinion. But, well, whatever.

On your later post, important to separate Old Glory15 mm from Old Glory 25 mm – two different companies (even with a common heritage). Blue Moon is allied with Old Glory25 – to avoid any confusion for those not already in the know.

Sorry. I thought it was obvious I was talking about old glory 15mm as it is a 15mm topic and they make the bigger packs I was talking about.I was talking from a UK perspective and what I've seen over the last 30 years at tournaments and in media. I see very few 15mm games put on at shows nowadays. Like you say the skirmish game is much easier to put on.

It depends what your idea of a game is. I know many people like to play 'scenario' based games with sides that are somehow roughly equal and either side has a chance to win. That would indeed be difficult in these battles.

My group fights historical battles, so in many of those one side is clearly going to lose from the start. Usually as an umpire I would look at modifying it slightly sometimes but not enough to change the likely outcome completely e.g not make the Chinese quite as bad as they were on the day. The Chinese player may well know they are going to lose, but it's up to them to do better than they did on the day.At the end of the night, the side that did better than they did on the day will be declared the winner. Making a game of it whilst keeping a flavour of the battle and the armies involved is where it's at as far as I'm concerned.

Sorry, gone off at a tangent…still looking forward to the range being released!

I went whole hog into the Boxer Rebellion and 55 Days in Peking with Old Glory's 25mm figures and Legations 20+ years ago. It's a great period to game and OG's figures and buildings were a lot of fun to paint. I'd love to add any new Blue Moon 15mm Colonial-era figures that I could shoehorn into my Sudan and AZW efforts but Blue Moon's figures, while beautiful, are too tall to mix with my existing ["true"] 15mm collections.

I put up three humorous posts taking the micky out of the infamous 'small minority of British post', hoping it would show how silly it was. As suspected I got dawghoused. Although I wasn't trolling it was the excuse used.

People have often said the moderation isn't even and I can now see why. No problem thoug, as they say, it's Bill's place so he can do what he wants and interpret/ignore his own rules as he sees fit.

Lion, have you checked out the rules from the old WI issue, 55 Minutes at Peking? All players run legation forces and the Boxers are the common opponent. Been a few years since I looked at it closely but I recommend you check it out if you are not already familiar with it. Seems the most commonly used rules for the era.